The sensory appeal of food products such as hamburger patties and the like is significantly enhanced when the products are served as soon as possible after their preparation. Accordingly, many commercial restaurant establishments carefully monitor the time period between preparation of food products and their service to customers to assure the sensory appeal of the products and customer satisfaction.
During relatively busy hours of operation in a restaurant, it is usually possible to maintain a generally continuous flow of cooked food products so that customers can be served quickly and efficiently, with the food products being served very shortly after their preparation. However, during relatively slow hours of operation, such as between customary meal times, it is generally not possible to maintain such a continuous flow of food products if the products are to be served within the desired time after their preparation. As such, in order to assure that only high quality products are served, it is frequently necessary that product preparation only be initiated after a customer's order is received. Such product preparation is also generally necessary when a customer requests a "special", non-standard order. While customers are thus assured of receiving food products of the desired high quality and sensory appeal, some customer dissatisfaction can result from the additional time a customer must wait for individual preparation of the customer's order.
It is thus desirable to provide an arrangement by which the cooking time for food products such as hamburger patties can be significantly reduced to permit quick and efficient preparation of a customer's order during periods of operation when a continuous flow of cooked products is not being maintained. Customer satisfaction is greatly enhanced since only products which are freshly prepared are served, with a customer's order being filled in a relatively short time as compared to the time required for preparing food products by conventional one-sided grilling.